i was heartened to read in the capital times this week that the wellington city council is planning to support the introduction of electric cars in the city. the article refers to a finish electric car conversion organisation, & after some googling i've found e-Cars - Now! which describes itself as "an open community devoted to develop high quality electric car conversions available for EVeryone." nice : )

roaring back to life

i got back from my 6 months overseas on friday, & on saturday i opened up the var. this took a while, as i'd put her up on blocks & very securely wrapped her up with a cover & a tarpaulin (because the end of her sticks out of the garage door). i'd had the solar panel putting a trickle charge into the battery, so i was hopeful that she'd start up immediately - but she didn't : ( the neighbours lent me a battery charger & i tried that, but even still she wouldn't start. i knew it was something simple, because the first turn of the key put on the dash lights, so power was getting thru, but when i tried the ignition, it all died.

because i'd put the car in frontwards, it was impossible to open the bonnet more than about a foot, & really difficult to see what was going on inside. so i gave up & this morning called the AA. once the car was out of the garage, he immediately saw that the battery connections needed cleaning, which took about a minute. then i tried the ignition again ... and she roared into life : )

tomorrow she'll get the warrant of fitness, & then i can reregister her, & we'll be back on the road : )

incentive to go electric

Recently the NZ government announced that electric cars will be exempt from road user charges, in a move to encourage more people to switch to electric powered vehicles. it's effective from october this year & will be reviewed in four years. it's good that this government is doing at least one positive thing, altho the transport minister's rationale for it - that there are very few electric vehicles in nz so the revenue loss will be insignificant - is indicative of their short-sightedness. the motivation for this move is to increase the electric fleet, therefore if it's successful the loss of revenue will be significant ... perhaps that's why they're slashing jobs in the public service now?

road user charges in nz are not too massive, i think for an ordinary car these days it's about NZ$280. if your car is over 40 years old, like mine, then it's only about $80 a year (in australia it's a lot more, because it includes compulsory third party insurance). uvbt it's still some encouragement for the average car user to consider going electric.

tucking her up

i have been mostly focused on body work over the last few months; i had some rust removed - the worst bit being on the left-hand pillar behind the passenger seat, which was starting to look pretty ugly, and at the bottom of that door & round the wheel arch. that's all been done now, & so i turned my attention to the floor. lifting up the rubber at the front was scary because i know it leaks into the passenger side - & sure enough, there was quite a bit of rust there. also in the spare tyre well in the boot. so i've applied blackguard to those areas & hopefully that will at least slow it down.

& now i'm off to europe for 6 months so she will be garaged again. the solar panel for the battery worked really well last time, which was 5 months, so i'll put that on again. this time i'm also planning to put her on blocks, to relieve the pressure on the tyres sitting in one spot for 6 months.

& no progress at all with electrification. too much else going on!

i just read in the AA magazine about rex nowland, in nelson, who has converted his 1971 VW beetle to be totally electric. surfing for rex also led me to the DIY electric car site - american of course but looks like lots of useful information & local links as well. rex's conversion cost him over US$11,000 - is not that much more than gav's which came in at just over US$9000. apparently rex's beetle's batteries, which cost around $3000, have a life of 3-5 years - that's quite a big cost every few years. maybe not if you're spending a lot on maintenance of a combustion engine, but the valiant costs me so little to keep on the road that the idea of having to put aside a grand every year towards batteries seems like a lot. anyway, right now i have NO money at all towards it - i'd put aside some to get the rust fixed, but that's all been swallowed up by a rot problem in my house.

first make sure the house won't fall down, then make sure the car won't fall apart, THEN think about converting her to electric (& somewhere in there i'd like to buy a scooter ... )

the valiant rocks

yesterday i came home after four & a half months overseas. i'd left lucy the valiant tucked up in the garage, under her silver blanket, and with the battery hooked up to a little solar panel that i left in the window of the garage. despite wellington having extremely bad weather during the last couple of months and lots of rain (i.e. very little actual sunshine) the solar panel has done the trick and this morning the car roared into life on the first try : ) i've just gone out to put petrol in the tank and air in the tyres, and it's almost as if i drove her yesterday. tomorrow she goes in for some mechanical loving - a service and lube and whatever she needs for her warrant of fitness, which expired some time ago.

while away, i'd been thinking about the rust which needs to be attended to - the left side is the worst, with spots appearing at the bottom of the rear passenger door, around the rear wheel arch and the rear column which i know is a tricky and crucial place to repair. from a distance (and hearing about the general wetness of wellington) i'd been imagining the rust running rampant, erupting orange through her smooth grey flanks. but today i'm happy to say that it's not as bad as i expected. the boot is starting to bubble a bit so i'll need to look at getting all of it done pretty soon, but generally she looks grand.

for a 44 year old car that's been sitting unused for four and a half months, she's fantastic! : )

Today I visited the Southward Car Museum; this is a fantastic collection of cars and various other bits & pieces, including some of the NZ's earliest wheeled conveyances and also some special pieces such as a car once owned by Marlene Dietrich, and another that belonged to a gangster (friend of Al Capone), complete with bullet holes. There are a couple of 1970s Valiants - but not one like this one!


The museum is in stark contrast to the old car museum in Havana, perhaps partly because most of Havana's old cars are still on the road but also in terms of restoration, lighting and display. There are about 30 exhibits in the dimly lit space, mostly visible from the street but I wanted to contribute my two convertible pesos - apparently a new improved museum is in the (very long) pipeline.